By: Robert Burns
COLLEGE STATION – Dr. Binayak Mohanty, professor of biological and agricultural engineering and Texas AgriLife Research scientist in College Station, was recently named a Texas AgriLife Research Faculty Fellow.
The faculty fellows program, created in 1998, recognizes people who “have contributed to the scholarly creation and dissemination of new knowledge through exceptional research leadership and grantsmanship.”
Professors and associate professors in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, who hold a joint appointment with AgriLife Research, are eligible for the honor and a $5,000 award.
“I am extremely proud of these scientists whose studies have brought great advances in their fields and to the benefit of the public and our agency,” said Dr. Craig Nessler, AgriLife Research director. “Their scientific endeavors are yielding results that positively impact people in our state, nation and world.”
Mohanty was honored along with Dr. Del Gatlin, fisheries researcher; Dr. Dorothy Shippen, professor of biochemistry and biophysics; and Dr. Bruce McCarl, agricultural economist, all who received Senior Faculty Fellow awards.
The award documentation cited Mohanty’s work in providing key answers to water quality and environmental issues that “are at the core of many global concerns.”
According to the award documentation, “His research has had a significant impact on the basic understanding of water movement through soil. His seminal contributions in the fields of hydrology and water quality have successfully bridged the gap between fundamental and experimental research for solving hydrological problems from pore scale to global scale.”
The documentation also noted Mohanty is internationally recognized for his studies that have increased the understanding of how environmental contaminants move through unsaturated soils.
Mohanty has also been successful at procuring external grant funding. Since 2001, he has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on projects that brought in more than $8 million for hydrology research. Additionally, Mohanty is currently a co-investigator on a $25 million grant for earth sciences research from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.
Mohanty earned his doctorate in soil and water engineering from Iowa State University, his master’s in engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, and his bachelor’s of science from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India.